Chel Diokno: Vaccine mandate can only de done through law, must be constitutional

Human rights lawyer and senatorial aspirant Jose Manuel "Chel" Diokno on Sunday refuted a news report saying he is pushing for mandatory vaccination, and clarified his stance on the matter.

In a statement, Diokno said that during his January 11 interview on ANC, he was asked if he would support a vaccine mandate if he wins the Senate race in Eleksyon 2022.

“What I said was that mandatory vaccination can only be done by means of a law, and the law must be constitutional,” he said.

Diokno stressed that he would only be in favor of any measure that would help ease the pandemic situation in the country as long as it is constitutional.

“As long as it is crafted in a way that does not conflict with the constitution, I would be for any kind of measure that will help us get out of this pandemic and in to a new normal,” he said.

He was then asked about his thoughts on mandatory vaccination for certain sectors in the country such as the academe or government.

He said that while he would encourage everyone to get vaccinated as it would result in herd immunity, any vaccine mandate must still be enacted into a national law.

“That national law must pass what we in the legal community call a strict scrutiny test. In other words, there must be a compelling strict interest and it should be the least restrictive means,” he added.

Diokno pointed out that in the country, however, there were only local initiatives and no national lawyer would authorize the law.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier expressed support for the mandatory vaccination of specific vulnerable sectors against COVID-19, saying that it is needed to achieve population protection.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases also seeks to implement this mandatory vaccination. However, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said that while local government units (LGUs) have the authority to impose such a measure, there is no law to support this mandate.

Metro Manila is set to study the possibility of mandating COVID-19 vaccination in the region.

Currently, unvaccinated residents in Metro Manila have been ordered by the Metro Manila Council to stay home unless they are buying and accessing essential goods and services while the National Capital Region is under Alert Level 3.

Diokno added in the statement that simply appealing to the unvaccinated to get vaccinated “would not work” nor will the threat to arrest them if they refuse to do so.

He thus urged the government to spearhead a massive literacy and information campaign to address the misinformation and other reasons why some people are hesitant to get vaccinated.

Based on the Department of Health’s (DOH) national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 58,765,384 individuals have already received their first dose against COVID-19 as of Saturday.

Of this total, 55,093,311 have completed their doses, while 4,765,771 have received their booster shots after reaching the three- to six-month requirement.

The DOH on Sunday reported 37,154 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the Philippines' caseload to 3,205,396. — BM, GMA News